Paint drops, new tubes of paint

Its starting to pale in comparison, making abstract with watercolour versus making abstract with digital sketchbook app. But the digital images are teaching me a lot and pushes me to make watercolour paintings more intense and saturated. In this watercolour, I tested out the new paints I just received from Kama Pigments, an excellent artisinal art supply store in Montreal. They have Daniel Smith and Holbein brand paints at great prices, and I use their synthetic squirrel brushes. In the painting you see bright yellow called imadazole yellow by Holbein (PY154),  and by Daniel Smith there are permanent orange (PO62), raw sienna (PBr7), raw umber (PBr7), quinacridone purple (PV55), and indothrone blue (PB60).

The only one I have never used before was the raw umber by Daniel Smith, although I had one by M. Graham which used honey in the formula. I liked the colour of the M. Graham one but the honey-based paint tend to melt in the summer. In the winter, the honey-based paints activate quite well though, so that is a plus since I paint outside throughout the winter no matter how cold it gets. Luckily, the Daniel Smith raw umber is the exact same colour profile, a dark-chocolate, rich neutral brown perfect for making tree bark, fresh earth, or black coffee hues. 

Paint drops, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Digital sketches Abstract

This is what happens when give an artist like me, a prolific doodler, a powerful sketchbook digital app. Endless variety of art. Its interesting because the range of tools, patterns, colours and contrast is staggering. In this example I combined the gradient tool with transparent brush strokes and some stamping features to create an ominous world claw in grey scale. 

World Claw, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

A simple line drawing was embellished with colourful splash stamps and a transparent grid. Airbrushing on the sides and open spaces gave an ethereal smoky glow. 

Pattern Spillover, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This one started as a pattern arrangement in grey scale, with colourful neon electrical waves. Then I got into gradient fill and image tilt features, finishing with some well placed paint splatters. 

Dimensional broken record, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Using a standard marker tool, I found an option menu and selected colour multiplier. Somehow it was taking the colour attributes (hue saturation value) and multiplying them where two brush strokes overlapped. I added a few black brush strokes here and there to balance the left side of the composition. 

Colour multiplier, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

The colour scheme and patterns ended up looking like a Madonna rock video from the 80's... black, white, pastels, and mesh textures. To make images like this requires a sense of composition, its something I can feel viscerally. So my stomach and nervous system help guide artwork creation reflexively.  

Material Grill, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Digital sketches surrealism

With a rainy day, no location painting I thought I would post some recent digital sketches I made with Sketchbook app while waiting for various things in life like dentist etc. This is a surrealistic portrait of Cilei!

Potted head, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Which makes this a surrealistic portrait of me? 

Primary head tilt, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

While painting in Point st Charles I saw an electronic advertising sign that was turned off, but had the most incredible violet and blue-violet glare. I stared at it for some time thinking about making a painting, then just decided to remember the colour patterns and make a digital sketch afterwards. It became intestinal violets. 

Intestinal violets, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

You have heard of a millipede, how about a billipede? It has a billion legs and glows green sometime in the future. 

Billipede earth, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

In this sketch I was playing around with the various paint brush tools. Its easy to do digital, but this would be hard to paint in real life. I am learning more about art and design from these digital sketches, and my location painting improves. 

Ice cream dream float, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Neat colours in the Point, legal wall

Point st Charles is a working class neighborhood, although isn't every neighborhood 'working class' ? I found a way in today via the Lachine canal bike path, on a street called Rue Island off st Patrick. A train was going past on an overhead rail, with a fire-truck attending to an emergency on street level. Painting the lights on the fire-truck was key to making this painting work... I first established the red and orange outlines of the lights, then surrounded with a purplish grey to give contrast. Its more about what goes around the lights, has to be grey and darks, then contrast makes it pop. The light effect on the fire-truck is just like I remember seeing it, you get the sense of urgency and action. I am standing on Grand Trunk road looking south on Hibernia road. 

Train over fire truck, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

On Grant Trunk road, this sports center is considered a legal graffiti wall... anyone can paint on it no problem. There was so much paint on the wall, it was peeling off in great sheets, dozens of layers visible like strata in an archeological site. The artists also painted over this garbage bin so many times it became abstract art. Painting with watercolour by hand was tricky, and I had to run through my whole palette of colour options to complete this painting. Fun. Next time I will bring along some spray paint. 

Painted bin legal wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Here is a photo of the wall where the paint layers peeled off, you can see the remains of various murals that were painted over again and again.... 

 

Swedish auto, Crescent st, dumpsters

After painting the back of the Swedish auto shop, I decided to do a profile of its front side. The owners keep the walls painted a fresh white yellow and blue, graffiti does not last long on this business. Many such places have been bought up and converted into condos, but there are still two or three along Maisonneuve blvd. 

Swedish auto front, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

A pub called Stogies in on the right, with a view up Crescent street on the middle left of this painting. Its a busy corner during rush hour, lots of cars and people going home from work. I've stood on this corner several times, there are great spots to set up beside the big stone staircases. I used to sit in a chair and this was one of the few spots I could set up downtown. In 2020 I developed the method of painting standing up, using my bike to hold the gear. That opened up the possibilities for painting in dense areas.   

Stogies Crescent street, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Around Concordia University downtown campus, this alley contains three dumpsters coloured lemon, lime and avocado green. The front one had spray paint all over which I replaced with my initials and year. It came out surprisingly realistic. Strong sun and near 30℃ weather made for some balmy conditions reminiscent of our trip to Brazil back in February.   

Lemon lime avocado dumpsters, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

I was just enjoying standing on this spot in the heat with sunlight beaming down, so I made another quick painting looking west on Maisonneuve with a view of Ben and Jerry's ice cream store. 

Ben and Jerry's , watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026  

 

 

 

Water under bridge, grassy field, old hoist

Here is another scene from the Côte-Saint-Paul Lock showing water cascading under the foot-bridge. I did a good one on this location a few years ago. Time flies, like water under a bridge, its been six years since the pandemic and like 4000 paintings later. I figured during the pandemic, if I was going to go down, I would go down painting. Luckily we were all fine and I kept on painting!

Water under bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Across the street there is a wonderful field of grass, it was blowing in the wind today. Next to st Patrick street, it seems rope for development, but for now I enjoyed its appearance. In the background is Highway 15 which heads to Verdun (to the left/south), it has a bridge going over the Canal.  

Field of grass near canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Resting in the shade I got a view of an old iron hoist that used to be for moving cargo on and off barges along the canal. Its still standing and looks as if you could use it with a little grease and oil. It has the look of something that was put together by skilled workers on the spot with iron scraps and welders. Even the pulley system is still attached. As usual, graffiti adorned its surface, which I changed to my initials. 

Old rusty hoist, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Scenes of construction and concrete factory

Down in Ville st Pierre there are plenty of neat scenes of the highway overpasses, and this past few years its been in the midst of a massive construction project. Once known as one of Montreal's most dangerous intersections, now its completely safe because the cars are basically stopped at all times and there are crossing guards everywhere. This view shows a grassy hillside casting a shadow, with construction in the foreground. 

Grassy hill overpass shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

The blue house is surrounded by construction pylons as you can see in this painting. A curvy arrow sign tells drivers where to go. Okay, I tend to embellish signs on occasion for maximum confusion. That is how people feel when they see such signs. A traffic cop was directing things too, which helped ease confusion. 

Blue house orange pylons, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

A massive concrete factory on the Lachine canal was chugging away with a lineup of concrete trucks taking loads. In this scene I featured three interconnected concrete pipes and place my initials at their ends. It was best to not copy too much actual detail, rather, just get the feel of it all. 

Concrete factory external pipes, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026